DEVELOPING …
Marco Rubio suspended his Republican presidential campaign Tuesday after losing the primary in Florida, his home state, to Donald Trump.
“It is clear that while we are on the right side this year, we will not be on the wiing side,” Rubio told supporters in Miami, adding: “My campaign is suspended.”
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Fox News projects Donald Trump will easily beat Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida’s Republican presidential primary, while Hillary Clinton will defeat Beie Sanders in the state’s Democratic contest.
Fox News projects Clinton also will win the North Carolina primary. Combined with her Florida victory, Clinton has now completed a sweep of all Southe states.
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Rubio’s loss in his home state potentially is a campaign-ending blow, though he had vowed to press on no matter the results on Tuesday.
Polls also have closed in Missouri and Illinois. In Missouri, exit polls show Trump and rival Ted Cruz locked in a close contest in the state’s GOP primary, though it is too early to project a wier. Trump is slightly ahead of Cruz in Illinois, according to Fox News exit polls.
It’s also too early to project a wier on the Democratic side in both those states. Clinton and Sanders are in a close fight in Illinois, while Sanders currently enjoys a slight lead over Clinton in Missouri.
Voters went to the polls Tuesday across five states in what’s been dubbed Super Tuesday II – with contests in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. Polls were staying open an hour later in some Ohio counties due to a traffic issue.
In the Buckeye State, Fox News exit polls show that Gov. John Kasich enjoys a slight lead over Trump, though it is too early to say whether Kasich will hang on to win his first victory of the campaign.
Trump also is slightly ahead of rival Ted Cruz in North Carolina.
On the Democratic side, Clinton also is leading Sanders in Ohio, though it is too early to project a wier.
On the Republican side, exit polls showed that Kasich was wiing over support from late-deciders and independents in the Ohio race. Ohio and Florida are the most hard-fought primaries, as the states award all their delegates to the respective wier.
For both Kasich and Rubio, a win in their home states was considered critical Tuesday night.
It's unclear what Rubio will do after losing in the Sunshine State.
He told Fox News earlier Tuesday that he’d move on “irrespective” of the results in Florida, traveling on to Utah, which votes next week.
“Obviously the difference is we’ll either be in Utah with a lot of momentum with the wind at our back or we’ll be in Utah after a disappointing night but we’ll be there nonetheless,” Rubio said.
He added, “This election is far from over.”
Further, Ohio Gov. Kasich is voicing confidence that he’ll be able to press on after Tuesday.
Though Kasich is caught in a tight race with Trump in his home state, his campaign is not entertaining a losing scenario; Kasich is vowing to win and to continue on to Pesylvania.
The remarks scramble expectations for the primary race. To date, Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have been pressuring both Rubio and Kasich to get out, hoping Tuesday’s five primaries might be the final blow to their underdog bids. But if they stay in, they could continue to draw delegates and help prevent any candidate from clinching the nomination before the convention.
Trump and Hillary Clinton both entered the Tuesday contests eager to lock down the race, but are facing the possibility that their rivals could live on to drag out the contest for weeks, even months, longer.
Kasich, speaking to reporters in Ohio after casting a vote for himself for president, also said he’ll be “forced, going forward, to talk about some of the deep conces” he has about Trump’s campaign including combative Idea the Republican front-ruer has made in recent days about his rallies.
Tuesday has more delegates up for grabs than almost any other day on the campaign calendar.
There are 691 at stake on the Democratic side, and 367 at stake on the GOP side.
Already, Trump scored a win Tuesday in the Northe Mariana Islands' GOP caucus.
The Republican Party said the billionaire businessman won almost 73 percent of the vote in Tuesday's caucus. He will get all nine delegates from the U.S. territory. Cruz came in second with 24 percent of the vote, while Kasich and Rubio finished a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Trump currently leads the race for delegates with 469. Cruz has 370, Rubio has 163 and Kasich has 63.
It takes 1,237 delegates to win the GOP nomination.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.